Getting $22m in Food & Voucher Cards to Those Most in Need

During the COVID-19 pandemic, across the U.S., more people were going hungry than at any time in recent history. According to the Associated Press, Feeding America, the nation’s largest anti-hunger organization, had seen a 60% average increase in food bank users since the onset of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. In California, the food security situation was especially dire. Hunger in California doubled, and in some areas tripled, since the state’s COVID-19 restrictions went into effect. 

To meet this urgent crisis, in late 2020 PHI partnered with the Los Angeles County Food Security Branch and their primary partner, Wholesome Wave, along with a cross-sector group of partners to form the #LetsFeedLACounty Food Voucher Program. The project distributed food vouchers to County residents, including immigrant households and college students, who were at risk of hunger but were excluded from other food assistance programs.

The partnership included tech companies, local government, grocery stores and community-based organizations in some of the County’s hardest hit communities. The project distributed information in 14 languages and relied on 19 trusted community groups to reach many people who otherwise would be unable to access other food programs. In about two months, the project distributed nearly $22 million worth of food cash cards to about 30,000 families and individuals reaching more than 95,000 people in communities impacted by the virus. More than 121,000 gift cards for grocery store purchases were distributed, and more than 240,000 boxes of food were delivered to homes.

Click below to read the full report on the project from PHI’s Center for Wellness and Nutrition and Roots of Change programs.

Read the Report

As noted in the report, food benefits ranged from $600 for families of one to three people to $900 for families of four or more, and were designed with choice in mind. Participants could choose one of three food benefit options:

• Home delivery of 14 pre-set food boxes via the Tangelo App
• Northgate Gonzalez Market food vouchers for in-store shopping
• Albertsons/Vons Heart Card for in-store shopping

Tangelo, the program’s digital food vendor, worked with California-based vendors to maximize the number of California-grown food items in the boxes — 68 out of 85 farmers were from California.

A brief evaluation study of the program showed that it successfully reduced food insecurity among COVID-19 impacted families: surveys of food voucher recipients showed an overall 14.7% reduction in self-reports of food insecurity following receipt of the vouchers, including an 11.4% reduction for households with 1 to 3 people and a 38.0% reduction for households with 4 to 8 people.